Journalist Spencer Ackerman: "A whole civilization will die tonight" is the most vile thing a US president has ever said

[Prairie Gates]

4. The difference

So, let us not be blind to our differences--but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.

John F. Kennedy, A Strategy of Peace, Commencement Speech at American University, June 10, 1963

A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.

Donald J. Trump, Truth Social post, April 7, 2026